With Blue Moon, Emily Ruhl is Telling a Love Story

In Blue Moon, love is love.

Martina Tolot Moroder/Credit

Following two young women through Los Angeles as they explore their depths, Blue Moon is a short film written and directed by Emily Ruhl; a top model turned filmmaker who has been making films for a while.

"I grew up in Texas and didn't feel like I belonged there, so movies were a way for me to escape my reality and how I learned about other people's lives," Ruhl tells CineChat. With movies, Ruhl could escape, learn about other perspectives, and get exposed to different things she didn't know about. "I've always been obsessed with films, and my brother is more obsessed than I am. We'd go to the movies; sometimes two or three of them every weekend, so that was a large part of our lives growing up." She added.

For CineChat's new issue, I speak with Ruhl about writing and directing Blue Moon, the reception it has received so far, and what the future holds.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

CineChat: How long did it take for you to work on Blue Moon?

Emily Ruhl: Blue Moon was speedy. I wrote it in a couple of weeks, and pre-production was about a month, and then we shot it in a couple of days, and post-production was two weeks. So I guess all of that was like in two months, which was extraordinarily short. And now we're developing it [Blue Moon] into a feature-length film and working with another writer to adapt it.

How has the reception for Blue Moon been so far, and how have you felt about it?

It's been really wonderful. We've been to over 60 festivals and gotten lots of "Best Cinematography", "Best Director," and "Best Actress" awards. If anything, I think it is the reassurance that this is my passion and the thing I am supposed to be doing. It is a friendly little pat on the back to keep going because every day, you fight just a little, an inch further for something, and some things take up long times, while others don't get made. So I think having people enjoy and connect with it makes it worthwhile.

You mentioned how movies were an escape for you as a child and how it was a large part of your life growing up. Was there any other thing that influenced you to pursue filmmaking?

I have an ex-boyfriend who was a writer and a director, and I think he planted that seed. It was the first time I could see the inner workings of that career choice. But I also believe that acting in my first film, Newness, on Netflix, helped too because it was the first time I had really been on set, even though I have done commercials in the past. That experience was magical, and I knew I would do all it took to get back to that place. So everything I do is to get back on set because there is something incredible about it, and it is a feeling of pure bliss. I love it more than anything.

Blue Moon is a tender queer short film. Do you see yourself creating more projects like this in the future?

Yeah, for sure! I want to tell stories that aren't told often because that's important to me. I want the writing to be as beautiful as the film itself, so creating something that's not only aesthetically beautiful but will also start conversations. Making things with a heart and a soul is significant and is the whole point of creating for me. I also think short films are an easy way to execute something.

Martina Tolot Moroder/Credit

Do we see the same faces when Blue Moon gets adapted into a feature?

I don't think so. We're kind of playing around with the actresses' ages; It will be the same archetype and definitely the same energies. Both of those girls are kind of non-actors; they were just friends of mine, so we'll probably recast. However, I want to keep the integrity of who those characters are, so we're still in the process of figuring out how we're going to expand that, and we've had incredible ideas. Our first writing session will be next week, but the story's integrity will be the same. I want to shoot in the exact locations; I want to have the same car and the same aesthetics. It'll just be an extension of the short film.

The feature-length film sounds good already. What was the inspiration behind Blue Moon? Is it a personal experience?

It's a combination of my experience and that of a friend.

That's great. So was she involved in the process?

Yeah, 100%. I wanted to ensure that the queer experience I was portraying was accurate from the heart. Both the actors in the film are also queer, and I used a lot of their life experiences to mould the characters. It was an amalgamation of everybody's experience, so it is pretty universal. I went into it making a love story because love is love regardless of gender and sexual orientation. So moulding both experiences into one was a beautiful thing and an incredible way to honour my friend.

Apart from Blue Moon being adapted into a feature-length film, what else are you excited about/looking forward to?

I'm excited about the TV show 13th Stepping, which I'll star in as the lead actor. We're in the process of finding a co-writer that will write the pilot, and we'll sell it to a network. I am also working on another film, Pretty Sad. I think doing several things in this realm is what I want to do; creating stories that have a lot of heart is my goal.

Blue Moon is available to watch on Public School Pictures, Vimeo, and Bluemoontheshort.com.